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So, what is a "nosey parker"?

One suggestion, put forward by Eric Partridge in his
Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English,
was that the saying dates from the Great Exhibition in
Hyde Park in 1851. Very large numbers of people attended
the Exhibition, so there would have been lots of opportunities
for peeping Toms and eavesdroppers in the grounds. The word
parker has since medieval times been used for an official
in charge of a park, a park-keeper; The term was used
informally for the royal park-keepers who supervised
Hyde Park at the time of the Great Exhibition. So the saying
might conceivably have been applied to a nosey park-keeper.

Another idea, put forward in Brewer's Dictionary of
Phrase and Fable, is that the phrase nosey Parker was
originally nose-poker. Poker, in the sense of somebody
who pries into another's affairs, certainly has a long
history, well pre-dating the nineteenth century appearance
of nosey Parker. It is not impossible that nose-poker
became modified with the second element being converted into
a proper name. Stranger things have happened. But evidence
is suspiciously lacking: the Oxford English Dictionary
has no record of nose-poker anywhere.

The most usual origin suggested is Matthew Parker, Archbishop
of Canterbury in the reign of Elizabeth I in the sixteenth century.
He was a reforming cleric, noted for sending out detailed
inquiries and instructions relating to the conduct of his diocese.
Like many reformers, he was regarded as a busybody.